Chapter 6:
Sunset's apple bucking day
As she spoke those words, one could sense profound sorrow coming out of the deepest part of her soul, as she spoke those words, drops of tears lined her usually cheerful face and the tone of her voice lowered down as the speech went on, until it ended:
“Now you know” sighed Sunset, after finishing her story: “I hope you’re not mad at me for not telling you before about this...”
“Why ever should we be?” replied Rarity gently: “We understand you’re suffering and none of us blame you for this”
“I thought...” said Sunset: “I thought it wasn’t worth mentioning, maybe that my problem would somehow magically solve on its own, but instead I’ve let my fear get the best of me and forgot I could count on you. I am sorry, girls”
“Not to worry darling, you have us and we will do all we can not to let you down”
“Thanks guys, I really love you” said in the end Sunset, trying to hide her last tears, while cleaning her face with a tissue:
“So, what’s the plan?” questioned then Rainbow Dash:
“I gotta get back to Equestria” answered Sunset who had suddenly put on a serious face: “I need to find out why she didn’t answer my journal entries; she might even need help, my help” as she said those things, her friends looked at her with an expression of both doubt and admiration:
“We understand why you wanna get through with this” said Applejack, after a while she had remained silent: “and we would gladly accompany you: Twilight is our friend, too after all, but...”
“there’s always a but, isn’t there?” asked Sunset annoyed:
“why don’t you give her a little more time?
“Applejack, it’s been a week since the last time we wrote to each other and she’s always been answering me after nothing but a few minutes I would send her a message”
“I get it, but why don’t you wait for a couple days more? Perhaps it’s been a busy week for her”
“How could she possibly be unable to answer me for a whole week?”
“I guess you never know, when you’re a princess in Equestria.
“And what am I supposed to do in the meantime?”
“Well...”after she had spoken those words, Applejack and the other girls turned around and started whispering something to each other: they clearly had not come up with a solution to their friend’s problem just yet: “Why don’t you spend time with us?”
“Come again?”
“You heard right Sunset, we’ll take care o’ you”
“That’s really nice of you to say, Appejack” replied Sunset blushing: “but I am not sure I will be able to enjoy myself, I just keep thinking about Twilight”
“that’s what we’re here for, we’ll make you forget about your worries in no time! Listen here sugar cube: you’ll spend some time with each of your friends here and every one of us will work on how to make you have the best day of your life, what’ ya say?”
“Ah...” sighed the girl heavily: “Fine, I suppose it’s worth the shot. So which one of you will be helping me out first?”
“This here girl, of course”
“Oh, right”
“C’mon y’all, let’s go!” exclaimed Applejack, as she pulled Sunset’s arm, dragging her friend along with her:
“Wow AJ, where are we going in such a hurry?”
“Why… to mah farm o’ course: I guarantee there’s plenty o’ chores for y’all to do there, y’all forget anything else in no time”
“Whatever you say, AJ” sighed Sunset, as the two of them disappeared from the others’ sight, headed right to Sweet Apple Acres.
“Are you sure I am up to this? They all seem pretty heavy” asked Sunset to her friend with a doubtful face:
“Ah, don’t you worry” answered Applejack: “all we need to do is bring this bails of hay out o’ the barn, so we can feed them to the animals in the stables: simple as pie, don’t ya think?”
“Yeah, sure” whispered Sunset, while trying to lift the smallest bail she could find, but it did not take long for her to realize that her attempts were useless, after all she did not have Applejack’s straight and she knew that too well:
“Shoot!” Exclaimed the girl, stretching her painful back and arms: “this thing must weight at least 10 tons!”
“ha, ha, ha” laughed Applejack, who had already taken out three bails:
“actually Sunset, If you ask me, that bail you’ ve got there, does not weight more than 40 pounds”
“come again, only forty pounds?!”
“Yup” answered the girl who could barely avoid crying from laughter:
“Sorry, AJ “sighed Sunset in the end: “I guess physical straight is just not one of my talents. I wish I could be of help, but…”
“No buts, sugar cube” interrupted Applejack who could already see her friend scowling again: “I’m sure there’s something you can do here; let’s see...” the girl stopped talking and raised her eyes on the sealing, as if she was looking for a crack Sunset could repair with a simple hammer, but somebody had already taken care of the job, so she turned around and looked outside and smiled successfully, as she noticed a bunch of apple siblings: “Bingo!” she exclaimed:
“did you find anything?” questioned her friend with a sad tone in her voice, the same type that only the ones who are about to give up hope use:
“Actually I did, come with me”. Appejack took a watering can which was just a few inches away from her and leaded Sunset through the orchard right to the spot where the apple siblings were planted:
“You want me to water these?” asked the girl, after taking a breath of relief: “Why, that’s sounds easy enough”.
While watering the new born plants, Sunset felt something new in her soul, something unusual and even if she had not realized it yet, she had found something she liked to do as much as cooking. While her friend started smiling at the sight of water dropping on the siblings, Applejack, who was already proud of herself for having had such a brilliant idea, looked around, trying to figure out what she could ask her friend to do next. Sunset had almost finished her work, when the girl happened to see her brother passing by, bringing a bag of chicken food over his shoulder:
“I’ve got it!” shouted Applejack at that very moment:
“What have got exactly?” questioned Sunset who was shocked at her friend’s sudden reaction:
“I’ve figured out what to do next!”
“Really? ’Cause I was thinking we could do a little more gardening...”but the girl did not let her finish her last sentence, for she pulled her arm with great straight and took her right in front of a field where Big Mac was working with a wheelbarrow and a shovel:
“Applejack!” exclaimed poor Sunset: “Are you serious, ploughing? After the discussion we just had?!”
“No, silly!” answered Applejack with a giggling voice: “I would never ask you to plough a field; we’re just here to ask Big Mac if he’s got something we could help him with”
“Oh right, that makes more sense, sorry”
“No need: hey there big brother” said Applejack greeting his hard working fellow farmer: “need a helping hand?”. The boy interrupted his activity to think it over and then answered:
“Yup!” and indicated the orchard to the girls:
“I get it” answered his sister: “Apple bucking”
“I beg your pardon?” asked Sunset who was obviously not familiar with the term or farm life for that matter:
“Come, I’ll explain you on the way” said her friend, before pulling her by the arm once more, as she brought her among the immense apple orchard:
“So, let me get this straight “said Sunset who was still unsure of what she was supposed t do: “You plan on picking the apples off the trees by...”
“bucking them, o’ course”
“and how exactly do we do that?”
“watch and learn from the best” answered the girl with great pride, as she kicked a tree the apples of which fell right afterwards in the chests Big Mach had previously placed beneath every tree branch:
“Wow AJ!” exclaimed Sunset amazed:
“oh shacks, thanks, years of practice: now why don’t you try?”
“Me? But I’ve never done anything of the sort”
“and that’s exactly why you’re here: to learn new stuff. After all, you said you wanted to do gardening and this here is the most important thing to do on mah farm”
“But...”
“again with the buts?! I said less complaining and more working: you’re now part of the family and every Apple needs to know how to buck!” Those words reached Sunset’s heart and penetrated it like an arrow; the girl smiled pleasantly, then looked at her friend encouraging her to try bucking some apples:
“Ah, okay; I suppose it’s worth the shot” said the girl with her suddenly relieved voice: “If you say it’s that important, I guess I can do it for you”. Sunset approached the nearest apple tree and put a hand on its trunk and raised her eyes, amazed by its might and height: “Gulp!”
At that very moment one could swear the girl would give up at the thought of humiliating herself attempting to buck the apples, yet the sight of her dear friend Applejack who was standing by her side, was enough to make her want to try. So, Sunset beat the tree with her right foot and for an instant the apples on its branches began to shake, but in the end they did not fall:
“C’mon Sunset, you can do it!” hearing her friend’s kind voice filled Sunset’s heart with enough joy to make the girl want to try bucking a second time, but this time the apples fell:
“I did it, I did it AJ!” shouted Sunset: “Can you believe it?! I actually bucked those apples!”
“You sure did, sugar cube” answered Applejack: “I told’ ya, you could it. Now why don’t ya help me with the rest of the orchard?”
“Sure thing, right now I feel like I could take care of the entire harvest myself!”
“that’s the spirit, always feel pumped before getting to work, but you may need a hand, so let’s do this thing together”
“Right, let’s get to work!” The two of them harvested apples for hours, but in the same time they chatted, shared wonderful memories or simply told each other jokes:
“So, that time “Applejack said: “Big Mac saw some enormous, gigantic beast passing by, so he thought he’d cover himself in mud and hid in the pig pen. Turns out the creature was actually a float the Crusaders had built for a horror parade!”
As they laughed together, one could say that for the first time in days Sunset was sincerely amused, that she was enjoying herself, that she had stopped worrying; even If the deep sadness in her heart had yet to abandon her. They worked all day under the heat of the sun burning their skin, they only stopped when they noticed that afternoon was almost over: “Shoot, we’ve been roughing it the whole day” exclaimed Applejack, both surprised and pleased that her friend had not yet worn herself up: “Are you sure you don’t secretly run a farm yourself?”
“ha, pretty sure” giggled Sunset: “but I have to admit that all this bucking has left me exhausted: I don’t know how you manage to handle all this work everyday”
“Oh, you're making me blush! I guess that practice makes perfect”
“Sure AJ, sure”
“hey, here’s an idea: are you feeling hungry?”
“As a horse!”
“Care for a bite of apple pie?”
“Mmm, sounds yummy, how can I refuse such an invitation?!” The girls went for Applejack’s house, which was beyond the field, where they found Granny Smith who was taking one of her naps. They silently headed for the kitchen:
“tell me something Sunset: do you like to bake?”
“Well I do handle things pretty well in the kitchen, so I guess my answer would be yes”
“Good, ‘cause I don’t have any pies: we gotta bake one”
“Applejack, how could you do this to me? First you make me feel hungry and now you tell me there’s no pie?”
“Don’t ya worry girl, you’re in good hands: they don’t call me the best baker ever for nothin’”. Sunset smiled at the sight of her friend mixing up flour eggs and apples in a bowl: it was like she could see her own self in Applejack:
“Let me help you” said the girl, after staring at her for a while:
“sure, take the spoon and keep going, while I get some more ingredients”. Applejack added sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to the mix and put it in the oven, when it had reached the right temperature. As they were watching over the pie, the girls could clearly see it rise, while a warm and delicious smell of apples filled the room enough to awake Granny who entered the room:
“Are y’all girls baking?” asked the woman with her usual huge smile:
“yup!” answered her granddaughter:
“Mmm… that pie sure smells good”
“Thanks Granny Smith” said Sunset delighted by Granny’s compliment:
“well y’all better be careful or your pie’ ll end up like the time when that other friend o’ yours came here”
“don’t worry Granny: we’ll be careful”
“Well, I’d better go check how Big Mac is doin’, be right back”. In the mean time the oven timer started ringing, meaning the pie was ready:
“Have I ever told ya ‘bout the time Pinkie was here?”
“Not really, but Pinkie has”
“Oh and what did she say?”
“She said the two of you were so caught up in chatting, you forgot to turn off the oven and burned all the pies”
“Yeah, she was so mad, she never burns pies!”
“And have I ever told you about the time Rarity and I met in the library?”
“Ah don’t think so”
“that time, I noticed Rarity had something stuck in her teeth, presumably a lettuce leaf, so I tried to point that out to her, but, as we were in the library and we couldn’t talk, I started waving my arms and making weird signs with my hands which, of course, she couldn’t get the meaning of, so I...”
“What?” asked Applejack with great curiosity without noticing her friend was blushing:
“...well...you see, I...”
“C’mon Sunset, spill the beans!”
“...I took a leaf from a plant nearby and bit it” at those words Applejack could not help but laughing unstoppably, as her Sunset went on saying: “but she obviously didn’t understand what I was doing and was caught by a guy with a lettuce leaf between her teeth”
“Poor Rarity” said Applejack, after she had pulled herself together: “bet she was devastated as soon as she found that out”
“Yeah, I feel sorry for not having been able to help her back then”
“I guess we both had our epic fails, eh?”
“Yeah”.
They sat at a table and shared the apple pie they had baked with Granny Smith, Big Mac and Apple Bloom, after they all arrived attracted by its delicious smell and drunk fresh made apple cider, they listened to Granny’s stories around the fire place and to the adventures AB had just had with the Crusaders and they laughed together, as time passed by. When Sunset decided to leave the sun had already disappeared behind the hills surrounding the farm:
“are you sure you’re okay with going home alone at this time o’ day?”
“Sure, I mean what could go wrong? After all, you did so much for me today, I wouldn’t want to ask too much”
“Are you kidding? You want me to leave you go around the city alone in the dark? No way, I’ll take you home: I just need to borrow Granny’s old jalopy”
“Who are you calling a jalopy?!” interrupted them Granny Smith: “Mah cart is as good as new and one can drive it only in my presence, so I’ll come along”
“Ah” sighed her granddaughter: “Fine Granny, now can I please have the keys?”
“There you go” answered the woman pulling out the cart keys from a pocket and throwing them at the girl:
“wait here Sunset, I juts need to take the vehicle from the garage and we’ll be on our way”
“Applejack!” exclaimed Sunset, as her friend turned around:
“Yes?”
“Thanks, for what you did for me today, I’m grateful”
“No need to thank me, as I said before you are now part of the family”
“Yeah, family...” whispered to herself Sunset, holding the handbag with her journal in it close to her heart, as her friend got away heading for the garage,: “...I still wonder what the rest of my family is doing”.
As she saw Granny’s old cart out in the fields and Applejack waving in her direction, Sunset smiled and, hiding a tear dropping from her left eye, she entered the vehicle with Granny Smith and let her friend take her home.